This blog explores a family history search. It addresses genealogy, Jewish heritage travel and artwork. It has taken the author to Belarus, the Ukraine and Poland where she visited her ancestral towns as well as Lithuania where she studied Yiddish at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. As the author is both an artist and a genealogist, the blog also addresses her artwork related to her family and cultural history.

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Friday, March 18, 2011

Ordering Visa Files

As of late I've been busy preparing for my travels to Poland. Today I received enlargements of all of Dvora's photographs which have an odd power in their grainy quality. There is one of her and her father which was clearly folded four ways to fit in a shoe throughout the war. We'll be bringing these photos and Dvora's story to Poland together with my paintings to tell the story of the former Jewish community.

On another topic, a month ago I ordered a visa record from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for a cousin of some sort who had left Glasgow for the Chicago. My quest is to tie him back to the Belarus shtetl of Dunilowicz and thus solve a long time family mystery of a link to relatives in the UK. Yesterday I received the first step in this process, the case number for which I paid $20. Then I pay another $35 in order to get the visa file which should contain a birth record. It took one month to get through this first step. All ordering is on-line so very simple to execute. I always wonder what the mailman thinks is the story behind this correspondence from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service that comes to my home.

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Welcome

Welcome to this blog. In these pages I address the issues that are of deep interest to me. I take you on my travels to Eastern Europe, my observations about the former and present Jewish communities in those countries and the response of those countries to their history. I capture this in both words and artwork and frequently share my artwork in these pages. In addition I address my genealogy research based on family who originated in many of the places I explore. This has been a process of discovery for me and I invite you to join me on this journey.

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About Me

Susan Weinberg researches, paints and writes about family, cultural and community history. Her family history interests and travel frequently inform her artwork.
Susan writes of her travel to ancestral towns throughout Eastern Europe and her artwork based on those communities.
Susan has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally. Her most recent body of work is the Jewish Identity and Legacy project, a project which includes oral history and art creation. Based in Minneapolis-St Paul, Susan creates artwork and does genealogy consulting. She speaks frequently on her artwork and genealogy topics. She maintains two blogs, Layers of the Onion with a family history and art focus and Creative Connections on the Minneapolis Jewish Artists' Lab.